Outspoken and ascerbic, with a singing voice that was commanding yet gravelly, Elaine Stritch, 89, had a show business career that spanned seven decades. Alcoholic and diabetic, a lethal combination, she came close to death on several occasions, but died on Thursday out of the spotlight in her home state of Michigan, where she went for a retirement that few who knew her believed would stick.
Stritch won Emmys for her recurring roles on 30 Rock and Law & Order, as well as for the televised version of her one-woman stage biography, Elaine Stritch at Liberty. And she made a lot of undistinguished movies, such as Out to Sea, Krippendorf’s Tribe, Small Time Crooks and A Farewell to Arms, invariably in supporting roles that did not come close to showcasing her larger-than-life persona.
No, Stritch was a creature of the stage, a Broadway Baby, to cite the Stephen Sondheim song she took as her own for her various cabaret appearances. Early on in her career, soon after arriving in New York from Detroit, she understudied Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam, an assignment that must have kept La Merm healthy or at least showing up and performing. Other highlights of her stage work included Pal Joey, Noel Coward’s Sail Away and Company, in which she played the vodka stinger-obsessed Joanne, devouring the 11 o’clock solo, The Ladies Who Lunch.
I was in college when I saw her in Company, a landmark ensemble production in which she simply could not, not stand out. It was the first of four stage appearances of hers I saw, including the revival of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, playing alcoholic Claire. (Hmm, do you think there’s a pattern to her roles?)
The other two live appearances I was privileged to see were two performances of At Liberty, where she reeled off the drink of choice she would imbibe to get her over her constant stage fright. “’An Angel in the Wings,’ Canadian Club. ‘Pal Joey,’ Beaujolais Villages. ‘Call Me Madam,’ white wine. ‘On Your Toes,’ Dewar’s. ‘Bus Stop,’ Schlitz. ‘Sail Away,’ Dom Perignon. ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’, Smirnoff’s. ‘Company,’ Courvoisier.” How’s that for a liquid résumé?
The second performance of At Liberty was at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre — nearly 10 years ago — in her first East Coast appearance in the tour de force since her Tony Award-winning engagement on Broadway. It came about because she happened to be wearing a Maltz Jupiter T-shirt in a documentary about how the show was put together. When an item in The Palm Beach Post wondered how she got the shirt, she called the theater to say she had no earthly idea, and then executive director Todd Alan Price thought on his feet and invited her to bring her show here for a week in October 2004.
What few probably remember, though, is that the area was bombarded with hurricanes a few weeks before then, and residents were more concerned about getting power restored to their homes than they were about catching Stritch’s star power. Advance sales were not good, but rather than scratching the booking, she agreed to push it off until mid-November. Very classy, Elaine.
Her arrival in Jupiter gave me my opportunity to interview her, an assignment which should not be attempted by the faint of heart. For instance, I recall a warm-up softball question to her about what got her thinking about a career in show business. Hardly overly invasive, right? She snapped back at me, “I have no idea. No idea! Things just happen in life.” OK.
She did answer a few of my questions, but when I got too close to the material in her show, she would clam up, insisting that my readers would have to pay to hear those answers. And yet, it was one of my most exciting celebrity encounters, frustrations and all.
For those who follow theater, Stritch was one of the most enduring stars. If she was disappointed by her film career, she still told me, “I have no regrets, I have no regrets at all. I do the best I can. I’m doing the footwork, but I’m not running it.
“That’s up to then good Lord, what’s going to happen to me. But I’m going to work my ass off until he makes the decision.”